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We have a long history of being principled on the issues of banking and shaping the policies of multinationals. During the 1970s we led an international boycott of Barclays Bank due to their support of apartheid Southern Africa. We succeeded. Just this summer we campaigned against HSBC to drop the interest charges to recent graduates. We succeeded.

For those who don’t know, NUS banks with NatWest, owned by the Royal Bank of Scotland.

In the past Royal Bank of Scotland has promoted itself as ‘The Oil and Gas Bank,’ supporting initiatives around the world which have a considerable negative impact upon the environment. This doesn’t resonate with our principles.

I was speaking to Josh, President at Edinburgh, recently, about their AGM, and the motion they had passed on campaigning within the University against RBS, and how NUS can support their campaign from a national perspective. We must live the same principles our members do and NUS must act.

As we begin to work more closely with People & Planet, and establish a strategy on NUS’ role on climate change and the green agenda, we need to evaluate all of our processes and campaigns to ensure that they delivering upon the expectations of our members.

The finance committee has been keen to explore this issue as well, and I’ll be reporting to Annual Conference on the latest progress, but the very first step is to make public the correspondence we are having with RBS.

Last week this letter went in the post to the chairperson of Royal Bank of Scotland, Sir Tom McKillop.

Dear Sir Tom,

I am writing to you as our organisation currently banks with Natwest, and we have serious concerns over the RBS private funding of oil and gas extraction and exploration.

Having become aware that RBS between 2001 and 2006 provided over $10 billion in loans to oil and gas projects, and that the embedded carbon emissions resulting from these projects in 2006 were greater than the carbon emissions for the whole of Scotland we feel that it may be appropriate for us to seek alternative, more ethical banking options.

Before we make that decision we would like to call on you to carry out the following actions that would make it easier to retain our current bank account.

We would ask that you:

Calculate and publish the embedded emissions resulting from loans to oil and gas projects
Cap embedded emissions and set annual targets for reductions
Commit to a complete transition from fossil fuel to renewable energy lending
Establish ‘no-go’ areas for lending; immediately halt loans to unconventional fossil fuels (eg coal and tar sands) which affect sensitive ecosystems such as rainforests.

I hope that you are able to offer a swift response to this letter, and that I am able to give assurance to nearly seven million students that are represented by NUS that our banking provider is both financially advantageous and that they are ethically focused.

We look forward to your response.

Dave Lewis

National Treasurer

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